


I'll Run To Meet You

by Chash



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Work Contains Fan(s) or Fandom(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-09
Updated: 2019-04-09
Packaged: 2020-01-07 03:46:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18402467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chash/pseuds/Chash
Summary: Bellamy meets his best tumblr friend for the first time at a convention.That's where he sees her the next few times.





	I'll Run To Meet You

**Author's Note:**

> I have not been to any of these conventions but they also take place in an alternate universe, so if they're inaccurate, that's why!

_one. fan expo boston, august 2017_

**artfulslytherin** : Just landed  
Waiting to get off the plane  
I'm going to check into the hotel but then I'm free for the rest of the day

The message is about 90% a relief. Bellamy has been waiting for it all day, even before it made any sense to be waiting. He's been waiting for Clarke to land since before her plane took off, turned on his tumblr message notifications just so he'd find out no matter what he was doing, and then he's spent the whole day looking at his messages anyway, like he doesn't trust the phone to tell him.

Obviously, it hasn't been the most productive day.

**augustushadatumblr** : I told my boss I was taking a half day  
He nodded and didn't say anything and then like ten minutes later he came into my office and played the victory theme from Final Fantasy  
Apparently I'm a workaholic and he worries about me  
He bought the ringtone just to celebrate

**artfulslytherin** : Wow  
Did you tell him you're going to a con?  
If his reaction to his employee taking a day is downloading video game music to celebrate, I assume he'd throw a parade for you going to an actual convention

**augustushadatumblr** : I wasn't sure when I should tell you, but I have a chocobo and a moogle on my desk  
So he doesn't like Final Fantasy, he just knows I do

**artfulslytherin** : Why would you not tell me that?  
Why would that be your embarrassing thing?  
I'm jealous you have a desk you can put fandom stuff on  
I feel weird displaying my fandom

**augustushadatumblr** : Yeah but how much bi pride stuff do you have up?  
I thought about getting a pan flag and chickened out

**artfulslytherin** : Is there a My Little Pony that's pan colors? That's a subtle way to do it  
Off the plane btw  
Navigating your airport  
Is there a law about how close you need to be to a Dunkin Donuts at all times?

**augustushadatumblr** : Yeah, it's for the whole Boston metro area  
You get used to it  
How comfortable do you feel taking the train?

**artfulslytherin** : How many instructions are you giving me?

**augustushadatumblr** : Take the silver line to South Station, it's free  
And then take the red line to  
Wherever we want to go

**artfulslytherin** : Wow yeah  
Really helpful

**augustushadatumblr** : It depends on how close you want to be to your hotel  
I live in Central so most of my regular stuff is around there  
But we could find somewhere downtown if you don't want to go too far

**artfulslytherin** : How do I get to Central?

**augustushadatumblr** : Take the red line towards Alewife  
It's probably like 15-20 minutes

**artfulslytherin** : I can meet you there  
What time?

**augustushadatumblr** : Tell me when you get to south station  
I'll leave work then, we should get to central about the same time

**artfulslytherin** : Cool, sounds good  
See you soon!

It's not like Bellamy isn't excited about the whole thing. He's been in the _Animus_ fandom for about eight months, getting into it during the mid-season hiatus of the second season, and Clarke was one of the first friends he made once he got there. She was an already-established fan artist, someone whose work he admired when he saw it, so when she asked if she could draw a scene from one of his fics, of course he said yes, and told her how much he liked her work, and then they were just talking, chatting about what they were working on and what they were reading and what they were annoyed about. Bellamy's never been a big fan of sharing too much of himself online, but it was easy to slip into it with Clarke. They talked so much that it was impossible for real life to not slip in, especially when she would talk about what was going on with her. It wasn't the first time it had happened to him, but there has always been something about this relationship that feels different, weighty.

Which isn't why she's going to be the first fandom friend he ever meets in real life, but it probably _is_ why it feels like such a big deal. He has other mutuals who are planning to be at this con, people he likes, people with whom he's passingly familiar, people who leave nice comments on his fic, but no one else is messaging him to come hang out, and he wouldn't be agreeing to hang out with any of them even if they were.

If he doesn't click with anyone else in person, it's not going to bother him too much. But if he and Clarke don't like each other, he'll be losing a real friend. 

And, of course, there's the other part of his mind, the guilty part that feels like it turned on around when he hit thirty and people started acting like his singleness was a creeping illness. He does know that Clarke is twenty-six, single, and bisexual, and even if she doesn't feel like a real romantic prospect, he'd always idly wondered what it would be like if they met, if they'd hit it off. And now he's going to find out.

Obviously, the next half an hour of work is completely pointless. He sets up his out-of-office email for the rest of the afternoon and Friday, returns a few messages he's been putting off, and finally just gives up and goes to wait for his bus, even though Clarke hasn't gotten in touch yet. If he gets there before he does, he can kill time on his phone. He'll feel better just being on the move.

The timing actually works out well; she gets to South Station right as his bus is leaving, so assuming there isn't too much traffic, they'll get in right around the same time. It's really nothing to stress over.

Then she sends a follow-up message: _Btw I've been not asking because I don't want to be creepy, but I probably need to know what you look like_.

It's not like it's an unexpected request. Bellamy's been thinking about it himself, avoiding asking for the same reason she was. He knows she's white, but that's about it, and he never wanted to be the guy who cared about that.

It is, at least, relevant now. This is less curiosity than logistics.

**augustushadatumblr** : Like 5'10", black hair, brown eyes. Glasses. I'm wearing a button-down and khakis. No red rose in my pocket or anything, but there's a florist by the train station so I can grab one if I get there before you

**artfulslytherin** : I was hoping you had made a sign like chauffeurs do at the airport  
I'm 5'5", blonde hair, blue eyes. Jeans and gray henley.   
I've also got a nose ring, but you'd have to be pretty close to see that

**augustushadatumblr** : Yeah, I'm going to skip examining every blonde in Central's nose  
We'll probably be fine

**artfulslytherin** : Probably, yeah  
I'm on my way to Kendall, by the way  
The part where we went over the river was really pretty

**augustushadatumblr** : Yeah, that's my favorite part of the red line  
Not that it has a lot of competition  
I think I am going to beat you here

**artfulslytherin** : You don't have to buy a rose, ftr  
Don't waste your money

He still thinks about doing it, just to help break the ice, but it feels a little too on-the-nose romantic, especially when neither of them has talked about this being a romance. And it might not be.

He goes to Starbucks and grabs an iced tea instead, his phone feeling as if it's burning a hole in not just his pocket, but his entire right leg. She'll be here in no time, unless something goes wrong with the red line. Which, given the red line, isn't that unlikely, but he's not going to dwell on it. If she gets stuck behind a disabled train, he might actually die of nerves.

His phone buzzes and he has just enough time to read the message-- _I'm thirsty, I'm going to hit up the Starbucks, meet me there_ \--before he hears the door opens and sees a girl with wavy blonde hair coming in. She's wearing a gray henley and jeans, looking at a cell phone, and there's definitely a bi flag pin on the strap of her backpack.

It takes him a second to remember how to breathe, but a lot longer to get his act together, so of course that's when the barista calls, "Bellamy!"

The girl startles, looking around wildly, and he waves when her eyes hit him, a small, nervous gesture. She's _cute_. Like, stupidly cute. He'd been bracing himself for having a semi-crush on her but her not being his type, but that's definitely not an issue. If he met her at a bar, he'd try to get her number.

It's not really something he's prepared to deal with, but he's going to have to do it anyway.

He holds up his finger, signalling her to wait, and goes to grab his drink before joining her in line, heart in his throat. "Hey, I was just about to respond to your message."

She smiles. "I think I've got the general idea." 

Her voice isn't as high as he was expecting, and now that he's standing next to her, he can see the nose ring, a mole on her lip, the curve of her smile. _Clarke_ , right here, close enough to touch.

He used to know words, but they're gone now.

"I think you're closer to five-nine," says Clarke, looking him up and down like she can actually measure him with just her eyes.

He chokes on his tea. "What?"

"I don't think you're five inches taller than I am."

"Maybe you're closer to five-six."

She smirks like she's winning already, and the nerves in his stomach reshapes like a balloon animal turning from a dog into a top hat. He's no less fluttery and anxious, the configuration has just changed.

He clears his throat. "So, welcome to Boston."

"Thanks. So far it's muggy and gross."

"Yeah, it's going to keep doing that."

"DC is actually grosser, so at least there's that."

"That's where you grew up, right?" She's in grad school in Indiana now, but he remembers her mom is a lobbyist, still goes back for breaks and holidays. She went to Georgetown too, he's pretty sure.

He already knows her pretty well.

"Yeah. My mom wanted me back for the summer, but getting a job on-campus sounded way better."

"You still think that with how shitty the job is?"

"You're underestimating how shitty staying with my mom is, which I know I've complained about."

He snorts and she grins and they move forward in the line. Clarke asks how work went and he finds himself admitting easily that he was so nervous he got basically nothing done. She admits she completely shredded a napkin on the plane. and that seems to be the magical interaction. They were both nervous, but they're happy, and they can move on with the friendship. It's cool.

They walk over to Harvard so she can see the campus, check out the art museum, which he hasn't been to before, and grab Korean fried chicken for dinner because he's been craving it for a week. The restaurant doesn't serve alcohol, so they get the food to go, buy a six-pack, and walk back to his apartment. His roommate is a nightmare, but a nightmare who usually goes out to bars around dinner, and they have the place to themselves.

It doesn't even feel weird anymore. She's just--Clarke. The same person she's always been.

"That wasn't too bad, right?" she teases as he walks her back to the train, like she can read his mind. "Definitely not too awkward."

"Define _too awkward_ ," he says, and she elbows him. "It's been fun."

"What time are you coming to the con tomorrow?"

"I haven't decided yet. Whenever you want me to come. I assume you have a whole itinerary planned."

"And you're just going to follow me around?"

He shrugs. "I assume it's a good itinerary."

"The best," she agrees. "See you tomorrow."

The con itself is fine, if not particularly exciting. _Animus_ is starting its third season in September, so they have a trailer and some promotional material to talk about. And the real draw for him and Clarke was that both halves of their favorite ship are here, which is pretty exciting. He's not generally into meeting celebrities, but the two of them have a good vibe and John Murphy is pretty much the polar opposite of Martin in real life, so it's kind of hilarious to see him being his actual vulgar self instead of a buttoned-up nerd. 

Plus, he and Nate Miller is fucking hot. Eye candy is always nice.

It is a little weird being tumblr user augustushadatumblr at the con, which he hadn't allowed himself to consider. It felt too egotistical to think people might know him. But even if there are a lot of guys at the con overall, the _Animus_ fandom skews female, so whenever he's at panels or in line for autographs, he stands out. And he said on tumblr that he'd be here, which he regrets roughly ten seconds into waiting for the first panel, when the someone comes up to him and says, "Sorry, but are you _Augustus_?"

She sounds so excited that he doesn't know how to respond, just stares like a trapped animal until Clarke leans over. "He is."

"I love your fic!"

He clears his throat. "Uh, cool. Thanks." Clarke nudges him, and he finally recovers, manages a smile. "Sorry, I really wasn't expecting anyone to know who I was except Clarke."

It's the wrong thing to say; her eyes widen as she looks between the two of them. "You're _Clarke_?" she asks.

"That's me."

"I didn't know you guys were together!"

"Just hanging out," she says, smooth. "B--Augustus here was showing me the town."

"We went to a museum and fried chicken place."

"In the town."

"Technically it was in Cambridge."

"Augustus showed me around a different town," Clarke corrects. "It was fun."

"Well, I really love all your stuff," the girl says. "Both of you."

"Thanks," says Bellamy. "I'm glad you to hear it."

It's the first such encounter, but not the last. Not everyone actually recognizes him or Clarke, but all they have to do is introduce themselves and a not insignificant number of congoers are familiar with one or both of them. It's flattering, albeit surreal, and he's happier when it's just him and Clarke wandering around, anonymous and largely unnoticed.

He didn't purchase any extras, but Clarke got autographs and doesn't mind him following here there too, so he gets to get close enough to both John Murphy and Nathan Miller to (theoretically) touch them, and gets to hear both of them heap praise on Clarke's art, which is awesome. She deserves it.

Clarke leaves straight from the con on Sunday afternoon, so he goes to the airport to see her off. She hugs him, quick but firm, tells him how much fun she had, and he watches until she goes up the escalator to the terminal before he goes to wait for the silver line.

She texts to let him know she's through security--they exchanged phone numbers, that's another cool part of the weekend--and then she tags him in a post on tumblr when he's on the red line. He's expecting it to be just a quick note about the con, and in a way it is, but in response to an anon ask: _Who was your favorite celebrity you met???? plz be murph I love him lmao_

_@augustushadatumblr, no question_ , she's replied, and he reblogs it to add _right back at you_ and grins all the way home.

 

_two. new york comic con, october 2017_

"So, how do you know this person isn't going to murder us?"

Bellamy glances at his sister. "Why would she murder us?"

"I don't know, maybe because you spent my entire childhood telling me to be careful of strangers on the internet and now you're going to bring an internet-stranger to sleep on my couch?"

"Yeah, okay. I've met her before, if it helps."

"But she's not your girlfriend. I'm not being heteronormative!" she hastens to add. "Just, like--you're sharing a bed with her."

"Because we're cheap and if we both sleep on your futon we don't have to pay for a hotel. She's got a girlfriend," he adds.

Octavia frowns. "And her girlfriend is cool with her sleeping with you?"

"We're adults, O. It's not a big deal."

"I'd feel kind of weird if my hypothetical boyfriend flew to another state to share a bed with some other girl. Is she gay? Are you just never going to be her type?"

"She's bi, and you're definitely getting heteronormative. People can just not fuck, seriously."

"It's cool that everyone's so mature," is what Octavia finally settles on, and he doesn't argue that.

The truth is, he's a little bummed about Clarke's girlfriend. It's a relatively new relationship, but they started dating a couple weeks after Clarke came to Boston, and that stung. He'd maybe been hoping he left more of an impression.

The girlfriend thing had also left him a little hesitant to ask Clarke about coming to New York in the first place. Even though a decent number of people from the _Animus_ cast were showing up, he kind of hates New York, and he hadn't felt particularly motivated to try to score tickets. It just seemed like a lot of work.

But one of O's coworkers already had tickets and couldn't go, so he was selling them and Octavia asked if he was interested. It's rare enough for her to actually invite him to stay that it was worth taking advance of.

And since there were two tickets, he figured he'd invite Clarke. If she didn't want to come, he would have found someone else, but he had to at least offer. 

In all honesty, he thought she'd say no.

**Clarke** : I'm outside the building  
Assuming my taxi took me to the right place and I'm not about to get shivved

**Me** : Only one way to find out  
I'll come let you in

She's waiting outside the door with a backpack and bags under her eyes, but when she sees him, she brightens all at once.

"Long flight?" he asks, giving her a quick hug.

"Long week. It'll be nice to relax some."

"You say that because you haven't actually seen my sister's apartment yet."

"Are you saying your fifty _it's really cramped and she has three roommates_ warnings didn't prepare me for how it's really cramped and she has three roommates?"

"I guess we'll find out." He hits the button for the elevator. "Why the long week?"

"Just a lot to do for class. And--" She sighs. "Not to be really pathetic, but I feel like I haven't had as much time for fandom since I started dating Lexa? And it's kind of stressing me out."

"What part of it?" he asks, leaning against the wall. 

"Everything, kind of. I know I haven't been talking to you as much, you don't have to tell me."

"I wasn't going to. We still talk pretty much every day, but everyone gets busy sometimes. Especially at the beginning of a relationship. It takes a while to figure out how to balance."

"Yeah. And maybe that's it? But I haven't told her I'm in fandom yet, so it feels like I can't engage when she's around. Even when she's just hanging out and we're not doing anything special. She's on her phone and I could be drawing, but I don't want to tell her what I'm doing."

"Why not?"

"I've dated a lot of people who were weird about it."

The elevator dings and he follows her in, hits their floor. "My high-school girlfriend was the one who got me into fandom in the first place, so I never worried about it with her. And then I haven't really had a serious relationship and a serious fandom at the time same time, so it hasn't really come up."

"Yeah. I feel like--" She huffs. "My friends all know and don't care, but I never figure out a good way to be, like, I'm online a lot! I like drawing pictures of fictional characters kissing and a lot of my friends are on the internet. Hope that's cool."

"What did you tell her about this weekend?"

"That my friend got tickets to NYCC and asked if I wanted one. She didn't ask for many other details."

"I think if it's bothering you because you can't be yourself with her, that's a problem and you should figure out how to talk to her. If you're just feeling bad for not being around as much online, don't. You're allowed to just have a life."

"More of the first one," she says. "It doesn't help that I said I liked the show and she said it was cheesy and juvenile."

"It kind of is," he admits. "And this season is starting off rocky."

"Yeah, but you're saying it with love."

"She hasn't earned it." He raps on the door. "O, we're here to murder you!"

"You always say that!" She opens the door, not even looking at him. All her focus is on Clarke. "Hi, you must be Bell's creepy internet friend."

"That doesn't really narrow it down, he has a lot of creepy internet friends."

It's the right answer; Octavia grins and steps out of the way, letting them in. "And creepy non-internet friends. You have really bad taste in people."

"This is why I don't visit you more."

"You don't visit me more because you think New York is too tall."

"Five-nine is a totally fine height to be," Clarke says, patting his arm. "You don't have to feel bad about it."

"I just don't like skyscrapers," he grumbles, but his smile is twitching out despite his best efforts. Octavia and Clarke are together and making fun of him; it's kind of awesome. "And it's too big."

"Title of your sex tape," says Octavia. "Come on, Clarke, I'll give you the tour."

They order takeout for dinner and watch the first couple episodes of _Animus_ season three while they eat; Octavia likes the show but doesn't keep up very well, so it's new to her, while Bellamy and Clarke are already irritable about it. Lots of shows seem to go through third-season slumps, so it's not totally surprising, but it still kind of sucks. Bellamy always feels like shows start going downhill as soon as he gets into them, like he's some kind of weird jinx. Just once he'd like to feel like he's not late to the party. 

But watching with Clarke is fun. They get to heckle while Octavia tells them they're giant nerds, which they are, and even if the show isn't everything he wants it to be, friendship is.

"This is why I'm getting you a pan pride pony," Clarke says, when he tells her as much. They're tipsy and trying to turn the futon into a bed with limited success, and everything feels warm and nice, a fuzzy blanket wrapped around the world.

His tolerance might be shot.

"What about a pride pony? That was so many p's."

"You're the writer, you should appreciate alliteration. And I'm getting you a pony because you just love friendship so much."

They finally get the fitted sheet down and Bellamy flops on top of it for a break. "Who doesn't love friendship? You love friendship. You're having fun."

"I am. It's too bad there aren't more cons."

"You know we can be friends without cons, right?"

"Yeah, but--it's easy."

It makes sense to him. It's hard to just decide to meet someone; it's why he's never met any of his other internet friends. If someone told him they were coming to Boston, maybe, or if he was traveling, but he never knows how to just invite himself into someone's life without some other excuse.

"Yeah, I was really glad when O asked about the tickets. I'm never sure how often I can come see her."

Clarke drops a sheet on top of him and then a quilt, and then she lies down next to him, apparently satisfied with how made the bed is. "How old is she again?"

"Twenty-four."

"So--six years younger than you."

"Yeah." He doesn't talk about his sister online, not really, not even to Clarke. It's not worth it. "I took care of her a lot when we were kids. I named her, she's never forgiven me for that."

She turns so she's facing him. "You were six and _Octavia_ was the name on the tip of your tongue?"

This part she'll like. "Augustus had a sister, you know."

As he hoped, she dissolves into quiet laughter, doubling over so her hair brushes his chin. It feels like having a sleepover, or how he thinks having a sleepover would have been. It's not something he ever did.

"How did Emperor Augustus become your patronus?"

"Because of that. My mom was--we were in a really shitty place when she was pregnant. O's dad was our landlord, and my mom fucked him to pay the rent. She was afraid he'd do something awful if he found out about O, try to get custody. So she told me we had to hide what was happening."

"You don't have to tell me."

"Do you not want me to?"

She smiles. "Just--no pressure. I didn't know it was a tough question."

"Yeah. She used to tell me stories to explain--everything, I guess. Why we had to be quiet about Octavia, why she left, why she didn't like the landlord. She liked classics, so that was the theme. Maybe I liked Augustus because he could actually do things instead of just running and hiding, I don't know." He smiles. "It's mostly a joke now. Whenever I ask Octavia what I should name something, she asks if Augustus had one, so I just sort of went with it."

"Was your LJ _augustushadalivejournal_?"

"No comment."

Her eyes drift shut. "I don't know anything about Augustus, honestly. Tell me?"

"Sure," he says, and tells her stories until she falls asleep.

The con is fine, but he barely even remembers it, later. That's what stays.

 

_three. awesome con, march 2018_

"I don't see why you're nervous."

"Really?" Bellamy asks, glancing over at Clarke in the driver's seat. Her mother is apparently so excited she's visiting that she paid for a rental car, which seems like a waste of money, but rich people waste money. It's nice to not have to take public transportation from Dulles to wherever Clarke's mom lives. "You don't have any ideas?"

"I'm just saying, I met your sister, you're meeting my mom. We're even."

"Parents are more stressful than siblings. What did you even tell your mom about me?"

"That you're my friend from the internet. What was I supposed to tell her?"

"I don't know. I assume your mom doesn't know about fandom."

"She knows I'm a semi-popular artist online, so she accepts that I have online friends."

It feels like a sore subject, but the feeling might be all in his head. Clarke and Lexa broke up at Christmas, when they had a mature conversation about how they didn't feel like they really had a future together, and Clarke's seemed fine with it. But he can't help wondering if the fandom thing was a thing, like he's maybe poking something tender.

"Besides, it got me home for spring break. She's happy."

"Do you lie to me about how often you come back home?" he asks. "You were here for Thanksgiving and Christmas. It's not like she never sees you."

"I know. She acts like I never come home, but I see her more than a lot of my friends see their families."

"Yeah, definitely more than I see my sister."

"She really wants me to move back to DC after I graduate," she says. "I think she always thought I'd stay in the area, since I was here for college. That's part of why I wanted to go away from grad school. I needed to live somewhere else."

"Do you think you'll come back to DC when you're done?"

"I don't think so. I don't think I want to stay in the midwest, but--" She flashes him a smile. "Honestly? I'll go wherever I get a job."

"Yeah, that seems right."

"Boston's cool."

His heart lodges in his throat. "Yeah. I like it."

Clarke's mother is polite in a brittle way he's used to from upper-class white women of a certain age, this awareness that they feel like they should be nice to him and are very conscious of trying to treat him correctly when they could just be treating him like any other person. But Clarke is good at running interference, and by the time they're going to dinner, it's pretty much normal, aside from the way Abby seems convinced that they're dating, and Clarke just isn't ready to tell her yet.

Which, to be fair, she probably wouldn't be. He can't fault the logic.

Awesome Con doesn't have a ton of _Animus_ stuff going on, which is honestly fine by Bellamy. The season is wrapping up in a few weeks, and while they could miraculously pluck something good from the garbage fire that's come before, his hopes aren't high. It's not enough to kill his passion entirely--he still likes his pairing and (parts of) the fandom, and he's not sure his friendship with Clarke would survive his ditching the fandom, if he's honest--but he's more interested in checking out DC than he is in the con itself.

Clarke, of course, has a plan.

"So, the only _Animus_ actor at the con is Niylah," she says. "And she'll be there on Sunday, so I figure we can just go stop by and check out vendor stuff today and then go to as many Smithsonians as we can handle."

"That does sound pretty good. What's Niylah doing?"

"She's on a Women of Sci-Fi panel, which sounds pretty cool, and then she's got autographs and photo ops. The usual."

"Did you get an autograph?"

"Yeah, my art is going to be so good she falls in love with me and we live happily ever after."

"Solid plan. Which piece did you pick for that?"

"The pin-up one? Where Ariel is winking with the gun."

He nods. "Yeah, that would do it."

"Fingers crossed."

The museums are awesome, of course, and there's a large part of him that wants to just blow off the second day of the con too, but Clarke really likes Ariel and by extension Niylah, and her panel will probably be fun. She and John are siblings in real life, so they always have good stories about each other, and it's not like Bellamy doesn't like her. But being with Clarke at a con isn't particularly an improvement on just hanging out with her outside of the con. Clarke is the draw.

So he'll go wherever she wants.

They have autographs first and Clarke actually seems nervous, which is a new look on her. She was cool as a cucumber meeting John and Nate.

"Are you really not into Nate?" he asks, surprised. "He's so hot."

"Yeah, but gay. You're not into Niylah. It feels disrespectful."

"I'm not not into Niylah."

"You also didn't actually get tongue-tied around Nate."

"Because I'm smooth."

"Uh huh."

"But really, why are you so nervous?"

"I want her to like my art."

"I think her running away with you isn't actually realistic, if that's what you're worried about."

"Damn."

The line isn't that long, so Clarke doesn't have a ton of time to fret. Bellamy makes to leave when there's only one person ahead of them, in case Clarke wants to be alone with the celebrity, but she latches onto his arm like he's a lifeline. 

"Why are you going?"

"Leaving you alone to charm her."

"I can charm her with you watching."

"Oh good, I've always wanted to see what game looks like coming from you."

"Don't go?" she asks, sounding almost shy, and of course he obeys, but he doesn't actually get it until she hands over the art she's having signed.

It's not the piece she said it was. It's one he's never seen, one he recognizes only because it's a scene from one of his fics. Ariel and Prima on a first date at the zoo, Prima with a melting sno-cone. He'd written it for her birthday, because she said there wasn't enough Ariel/Prima in the world.

It's been months. She never even told him she'd illustrated it.

"This is so cute!" says Niylah, beaming. "Did you draw it?"

"Yeah."

"I love the idea. Ariel would love the zoo."

For one horrified second, Bellamy is afraid Clarke's going to give him credit for the fic and he'll have to start praying for the earth to open and up and swallow him, which seems unlikely. There are probably people who would know how to deal with the _I write fanfic about you_ conversation, but he's not one of them.

Clarke knows that, of course. "Yeah, it's one of my favorites. Hopefully I'll get to a con with Anya sometime and she can sign it too."

Niylah writes a quick message praising the drawing and Clarke thanks her, which Bellamy registers like he's watching it on TV, like he's not even in the same world. It's not like she's never done art based on his stuff before, but she's never surprised him with it, not like this.

"Was that okay?" she asks, soft.

"Honestly? It was weirdly emotional. I didn't think I'd care." He winces. "That came out wrong."

"No, I get it. That's what I wanted to do. It's really cool, getting to have that moment, and I knew you weren't going to print off your fic and show it off."

"Yeah, uh, I have nightmares about that."

"Yeah, I figured. I thought this would be a good compromise."

"Yeah, that was really awesome of you." He swallows, manages a smile that doesn't feel like enough. He doesn't know how to be enough. "Thanks."

"You're welcome. Want to go get seats for the panel?"

"Yeah."

She doesn't ever actually give him the picture; he finds it, wrapped and framed, in his luggage, when he gets home. _We'll get Anya to sign it later_ , says her note, and he smiles at the _we_.

He doesn't know when he'll see her again, but it's going to happen. They'll make it work.

 

_four. animate, february 2019_

Bellamy is not prepared for Animate.

He thinks he is; it feels easy, actually, because it's a con just for _Animus_ , and even if he's a couple bad plot twists away from breaking up with the show, he still likes the actors and the fandom, and a con with just the stuff he cares about sounds like a good match. Plus it'll be smaller, less overwhelming, and, of course, Clarke will be there. He hasn't seen her in almost a year; if she wanted him to go to the moon to hang out, he would have been selling a kidney to afford tickets.

The main stumbling block is that it might not actually happen. Even if he didn't personally go to cons for his first few years in fandom, he kept up, and he knows that first-time cons are a risk, that they can fall apart or under-deliver or be a total scam. 

But, again, Clarke wants to go, and she's not worried. 

**Clarke** : If the con doesn't fire, we just hang out in Chicago for the weekend  
There are tons of museums there, we'll be fine

**Me** : In the middle of winter?  
Not exactly the best time to wander around the city

**Clarke** : You're already in Boston, Chicago can't be that much worse  
Besides, it'll be my last semester of grad school  
I'll need a break  
Are you worried about your girlfriend being weird?

**Me** : I told you, she's not my girlfriend  
We went on a couple dates  
And we decided to just be friends  
You're being weird

**Clarke** : So what I'm hearing is you're going to need to nurse your broken heart

**Me** : I'm barely heartbroken now  
I'm definitely not going to be heartbroken in like six months

**Clarke** : You could be  
You can find someone else to date and then you guys break up because they're jealous we're sharing a hotel room

**Me** : I'll see if I can set that up

**Clarke** : Keep me posted  
So, I'm booking the room?

**Me** : Yeah  
See you in February

Over the next few months, he keeps waiting for something to go wrong, but nothing does. Everything keeps lining up exactly right, right up until he's at the airport waiting for his flight and he realizes that everything going right actually counts as things going wrong. He'd been so focused on thinking about how this wasn't going to happen that he's not ready for it.

The problem isn't really that he's falling out of the fandom, although it's certainly a little stressful. It's weird to be going to what is, essentially, a two-day party for something he's not actually invested in anymore, but that's not nearly as weird as the fact that he's on his way to Clarke. Because in the last few months, since that first date with Echo, the one that never managed to turn into anything, Bellamy's been thinking. It's getting harder and harder to ignore that there's no one he likes as much as Clarke, no one he wants to talk to as much as he wants to talk to her. No one else compares to her.

And now he's spending a weekend sharing a hotel room with her. There's a non-zero chance it's going to be torture.

Her flight gets in before his, so she's already waiting for him when he arrives. She's gotten her hair cut short and there's a pink streak in it, and it makes it feel like it's been so much longer since he last saw her than it really has been. Like it's been years instead of months.

He missed her.

"Hey!" she says, putting her tablet into her bag and jumping up for a hug. "How was the flight?"

"Fine. How was yours?"

"Incredibly short. I barely had time to put down my tray table."

"Doesn't sound so bad to me." He shrugs his shoulders, getting his backpack settled more comfortably. "So, taxi to the hotel?"

"Sounds good. Some people from tumblr are having dinner, they invited us but I said you might be too tired. In case we want to get out of it."

"Do you want to get out of it?"

"I don't think so? We're usually not social at these, we should try it out."

His whole chest warms with the natural, unconscious pronoun. They're a unit here; she's not doing anything without him.

"Yeah, that sounds fun."

There's a surreality to the meal that there hasn't been since that first con, when he kept getting recognized. He's been incognito before, but everyone here is _someone_ in fandom, and he's a fairly conspicuous someone. He still doesn't post many pictures of himself, but Clarke drew a little cartoon version of him as a birthday gift (along with a Fluttershy plushy, since she finally decided which My Little Pony was the pan one) and he's got it set as his userpic now. Even with the stylization, it's pretty easy to recognize him. Clarke's good at what she does. 

It's not bad, exactly, having people who already know and like him. He likes them too, for the most part. But it feels like he's passed into another world, with Clarke his only tether to reality.

She's even less comfortable with the situation than he is, though, flagging faster, drifting away from the conversation before their food's even arrived. She's mentioned that she's somewhat introverted, that she struggles in social situations where she doesn't have a clear goal. 

But she's also the most stubborn person alive, so he's the one to plead exhaustion to get them out of going back to Harper's hotel room to watch a smash-cut of Martin/Conner scenes.

"We could have gone," Clarke tells him, like he might somehow not be aware.

"I'm tired."

Her mouth quirks. "It's weird, right?"

"It really is." 

"I know it's supposed to be this big draw, getting to hang out with everyone, but it's so much harder in person."

"Not for us."

"No. I was so worried, that first con."

"Yeah, me too. I thought it might be awkward the whole time."

"It's only awkward like half the time."

She laughs. "Sixty-percent, tops."

"I really missed you," he admits. "Is that weird?"

"Maybe. But I missed you too."

They watch _Bob's Burgers_ in their own hotel room, and that's so much better than anything else he could be doing with his time. Clarke fills him in on the classes she's taking, he updates her on his weird boss and his own idle thoughts about maybe trying to do grad school, now that he's somewhat financially stable. 

"How much longer do you think you're going to stay in this fandom?" he asks her, once the lights are out. This is their best talking time, as adolescent as that feels. "I feel like you're drifting out."

"And you're not?"

"I am, but I wasn't sure if yours was just that you were busy trying to graduate."

"Not just that." She sighs. "I still draw a lot honestly, but putting it up and dealing with the reaction just stresses me out? I think I'm not good at this stage of fandom. The one where people tag creators in my art and ask them why the pairing isn't canon yet."

"Yeah, I'm glad I don't get that."

"You get other stuff, though."

"It's worth it when I'm into the show," he muses. "Or at least when I'm really into the pairing. But Martin and Conner haven't even talked in like half a season. It feels like they heard people were shipping them and decided they could stop us if they tried hard enough."

"Well, you are stopping."

"I'm also stopping watching the show, so I don't think that's an overall win for them."

"Probably not. Any new fandoms on the horizon?"

"Not yet."

"Well, let me know if you find one. I'll tag along."

He smiles. "You'll be the first to know."

With the con's laser focus on _Animus_ , it's actually a lot easier to fill their schedules for the next day. Clarke sprung for all of the autographs because she has one group shot she wants signed by the whole main cast, so their biggest scheduling issue is figuring out which panels they don't mind skipping to wait in line instead. 

"I did get you a surprise, too," he offers, a little shy, while Clarke is putting together their battle plan over breakfast.

"A surprise?"

"I owed you."

"You didn't. What's the surprise?"

"Photo op with John and Nate. I figured we could do one together, it would be fun."

She grins. "I thought you said celebrity pictures were a waste of money."

"Pictures with friends aren't."

The smile turns a little wistful. "So, is this your last one of these, you think?"

"I'm not willing to bet you and I will ever make it to another con with John and Nate. And if we do another one, we can always get another picture."

"Start a collection."

He shrugs, but he knows how pleased he looks. She's definitely grateful. "It'll go well with all our art."

"It will. Thanks. I would have gotten one, but I didn't want to go alone."

"I'll always go up with you."

Her smile is soft. "Yeah, I guess you would."

Aside from the picture, Bellamy only purchased one extra: an autograph from Anya, for Clarke's Prima/Ariel picture. It's the first autograph he's ever actually gotten for himself, and he's already fretting about what he'll say and how he'll come across.

Clarke is delighted. "You do get weird around celebrities!"

"I'm bad at small talk."

"It's not small talk, it's barely talk. They do most of the work, they're used to it."

"I forget you're an expert."

"I kind of am. But you're definitely starting off at a higher difficulty level. Anya is intimidating."

"Thanks for your support."

"I'm here, aren't I?"

That finally gets him to crack a smile. "You are, yeah. You can go first."

Anya's line is pretty fast-moving, but it's also long. This is the first con Bellamy has ever seen her attending, and she's definitely a fan favorite. He and Clarke are far from the only ones worried this will be their only chance to get their stuff signed. It's hard for Bellamy to imagine doing this _without_ a buddy; he'd be awkward and bored without someone to talk to, and when he needs to go to the bathroom, she can hold his place in line. 

He knows what it looks like, the two of them, but that's not bad.

But then, when they're only about ten people from Anya, Niylah shows up for her session. Bellamy doesn't think much of it as it's happening; he saw her spot, knew in theory when her session was starting. They were already planning to go to her next, their last autograph of the day before they found dinner.

Clarke's autograph is straightforward. Her piece is the whole cast of _Animus_ having a nice day at the beach, and Anya immediately finds Prima playing volleyball with Ariel, Martin, and Conner and nods her approval.

"Cute. Did one of you draw it?"

"I did," says Clarke.

"You're very talented. Everyone's going to sign it?"

"No one's said no yet, so I assume so."

Anya cracks a small smile, signs her name, and hands it back to Clarke before turning her attention to Bellamy. "You have something for me too?"

"Yeah, more of her art."

To his surprise, when she sees his picture, she breaks into a _real_ smile, bright and unexpected as sun breaking through storm clouds. "This is even cuter."

Niylah just happens to be looking over, and she grins too. "Hey, it's you two! Good to see you again."

"Friends of yours?" Anya asks.

"You can see I signed it. He was so nervous last time," she adds, which is not at all how Bellamy remembers it. "His girlfriend had to grab his arm so he didn't run away."

That does actually seem like a pretty valid way to remember it, when she puts it like that. Clarke is certainly more than happy to go with it. "He's not great with celebrities."

"Thanks as always for your support."

"I'm glad you guys got it to Anya," says Niylah, her smile apparently genuine, and Bellamy smiles back.

She says something similar when they get the autograph, and Clarke doesn't correct her that time either. Not that Bellamy really knows how they _would_ correct her. It's such a quick interaction with someone they may never see again, who cares if she thinks they're dating?

It's not actually a big deal, he knows that. In the grand scheme of things, it's nothing. An actress remembered them and made an incorrect assumption. She's not the only person to think it, not even the first person to say it. But it feels weightier, coming from her. 

Maybe he's just looking for a sign.

"So," says Clarke, and that feels heavy too. But all she adds is, "Dinner?"

"Do we have any plans?"

"I think there are plenty of people we can talk to if we want plans, but we don't have any."

"I want to order pizza and hang out in our room."

"I could live with that."

She finds a pizza place while he gets his picture back in the frame. He hadn't actually looked at it yet, too swept up in the celebrity encounter, but he sees now that Anya wrote, _Your girlfriend is very talented_ as her message, which is one reason to have maybe corrected her.

But it's kind of perfect too. He'll take it.

"Okay," says Clarke. "Pizza ordered, ETA half an hour."

"Cool. Anya thinks you're my girlfriend."

"Anya probably already forgot we exist."

He hands her the framed print and she just studies it for a moment, her expression unreadable.

Then she hands it back. "Should I have corrected her?"

"I could have done it."

"That's not what I meant." She looks at him, her eyes almost comically intense, given what they're talking about, except that it _is_ important. His heart is beating out of his chest. "Was she wrong?"

He opens his mouth and then closes it. It's such a _Clarke_ question, this weirdly aggressive way to say, well--

She probably likes him too.

"You're definitely very talented," he says, and her expression cracks into a laugh. "I don't want her to be wrong," he goes on. "But I figured we should talk."

She worries her lip. "I've been looking for jobs in Boston. For after graduation."

"Are you finding any?"

"I think I've got some good prospects."

"Fuck," he says, grin overtaking his face. "Can I kiss you yet? I want to kiss you so fucking much."

She doesn't answer, just pulls him down, her mouth warm and smiling under his, everything he's been waiting for. Everything he's wanted since the first time he met her. Before then, even.

They miss the panels the next morning; it's totally worth it.

 

_five. san diego comic con, july 2022_

"I can't believe we're here," Bellamy says, flat and not particularly enthused. He's not sure he's ever been anywhere that felt so packed.

"We always said we wanted to go at least once."

"We say a lot of things."

Clarke rolls her eyes. "It's just three days. We'll survive."

"Hopefully. And I think we're getting more introverted as we age. This is probably the last year we could do this."

"Exactly. It's a good thing we're getting it done now."

"And it has absolutely nothing to do with you wanting to meet Lincoln Tremont."

"Like you _don't_."

"Yeah, but mostly to make O jealous. She's had a thing for him since he was on that shitty ABC Family channel show about homeless werewolves."

"We all had a thing for him in that show, his character was allergic to shirts. _Stars Beyond_ could learn from them."

Even after they started dating, Bellamy had been a little worried if his and Clarke's relationship could survive the final fall of the _Animus_ fandom. It's not as if he thought that was the only thing they had in common, but there's something about meeting through a mutual interest that makes the connection seem transitory. 

And he is, admittedly, kind of a paranoid person. It's hard to believe he's really allowed to get anything as good as his life with Clarke.

But she was done with the fandom by the end of season four, if not earlier--she admitted a few weeks after Animate 2019 that she wouldn't have even made it as long as she had if she hadn't liked him so much--and only he held on until the third episode of season five, when Prima died for no reason except that they couldn't think of a better storyline to write for her. He still watched through to the mid-season finale, but he never picked it back up after the hiatus, and that death. was why. It was just such a waste. And it had been tough in the same way that falling out of a fandom always is, the sudden gaping hole where his hobby used to be, but having a girlfriend kind of helped there. They watched Netflix and played video games and made out, and they're probably going to get a cat soon. 

Still, it's nice to be back in a fandom, and to be back in a fandom together. _Stars Beyond_ just finished up a (no pun intended) stellar first season, and it's got just the right combination of interesting characters and untapped potential to be fandom catnip. 

Plus, Lincoln Tremont. Bellamy remembers him on that werewolf show too, but he's definitely gotten better with age.

Not surprisingly, his line is huge. Clarke thinks Emori's might be shorter--she's a guest star who's getting promoted to main cast next season, but she's definitely not as popular--so she goes grab her autograph while Bellamy holds their place in Lincoln's glacially slow line.

"She's really hot in person," she says, when she gets back. "You should walk by her table."

"I do need to go to the bathroom. Lincoln's taking time to talk to everyone and make a real connection."

"Dick. Can you get me a Coke on your way back?"

He gives her a quick kiss. "I'm drinking half of it."

"Deal."

The autograph room is busy because everything and everywhere is busy, but it's kind of a nice, spread-out busy-ness. There's so much going on and so many different draws for so many different fandoms that even lines for big-name stars aren't as bad as they could be. Some people don't have a line at all, which always happens, but it always makes Bellamy feel a little shitty. He'd feel weird if he was the C-list celebrity who went to a convention and nobody cared. 

On his way back from the vending machine, after swinging by Emori's line to see that, yes, she is even more gorgeous in real life, he spots Anya as one of the ones with no line in front of her, and before he knows it, he's walking over. She's been doing voice-acting on a pretty decent Cartoon Network show since Prima got killed off, and he's sure she's got plenty of fans here, but it's weird, remembering how long her line was at Animate and seeing her with no one here now.

He doesn't have to feel bad for her, but he actually does want to talk.

"Hi, uh, this is weird," he starts, and her coolly raised eyebrow nearly stops him in his tracks. "But I actually wanted to thank you for something."

"Oh?"

"A few years ago, I was at the first Animate in Chicago? And you signed some fanart for me. I'm not expecting you to remember," he adds. "But my girlfriend drew it, and you wrote that she was really talented. Or, uh, that my girlfriend was really talented. We weren't actually dating yet back then, and your message gave me the excuse I needed to talk to her about it. So--thanks."

"I don't remember that," she admits. "But I'm happy I helped."

He worries his lip, the idea coming to him through a fog of half-formed fantasies, scenarios he'd imagined but never quite perfected. When the time was right, when everything aligned, he'd know. That's what he'd told himself.

"Can I actually get you to help one more time?" he asks. "I need another autograph."

Clarke is nearly at the front of the line when he makes it back to her. "I was about to text you," she says, frowning. "I thought you were going to miss it."

He hands over the Coke. "The line for the men's room was really long for some reason."

She snorts. "Yeah, that's a real mystery."

"Nervous?" 

"He's wearing his shirt, so I think I can control myself." Her eyes sweep over him and her forehead crinkles. "Are you okay?"

It feels like he's experiencing all of the anxiety that has ever existed in the world at once, but there's no way he's saying that. "Too many people around."

"Good thing we're done after this."

It doesn't feel even a little true, but he smiles. "Good thing."

Lincoln, once they get to him, is the perfect convention guest, warm and engaged, friendly, apparently genuinely interested in the two of them. It might be bullshit, but it's at least fun. Bellamy tells him that his little sister had the world's biggest crush on him when she was in middle school and Lincoln immediately offers to record a video of himself saying hi to her, which is going to be the perfect thing to send her like twenty-four hours after he sends the selfie they're taking with Lincoln. First he makes her jealous, then he shows he loves her; it's the older brother way.

And then the encounter is over, and Bellamy is left with a grand gesture to pull off.

"Okay, back upstairs, watch some TV, figure out what to do for dinner?" Clarke asks.

"Yeah. Maybe see if we can go somewhere nice."

She looks amused. "Somewhere nice? How nice?"

"Mid-range. Somewhere we have to try to get a reservation."

"That might be hard in San Diego during Comic Con."

"Spring for room service?"

Clarke cocks her head at him. "Are we celebrating something I don't know about?"

The elevator opens at their floor, and he leads her into the room before he exhales, says, "I hope so. I, uh--I got you something. Another autograph." 

The drawing is undeniably shitty; Bellamy isn't an artist, and he was drawing with Anya's sharpie on a piece of scrap paper her handler found for them. It's just two stick figures holding hands, labeled _Prima_ and _Ariel_ to make it theoretically fan art, and there's a heart over them.

Anya used her gold pen to add, _Your boyfriend can't draw, but he'd like to be your husband anyway_.

Clarke just stares at it for a second after he gives it to her, but he's not actually worried about her saying yes. They've talked about this before, in broad terms. She loves him, she wants to spend the rest of her life with him, she's planning to marry him. Anya asked if he was sure, and he promised he was.

Still, the pause feels endless.

"I can't believe you didn't tell me you were an artist," she says, and he laughs, and then she's kissing him, saying yes over and over, and he's grinning so hard he can barely stand it.

"So that's why I want to go out to dinner," he says, when they've finally recovered. "Or get something fancy."

"Room service," Clarke says. "Room service works for me." She grins. "You know, Anya isn't a guest tomorrow."

"And?"

"That means we can't tell her I said yes. We're going to have to find another con so we can let her know."

He laughs, kisses her hair. "I think I can live with that. We're pretty good at these, right?"

"Yeah," says Clarke. "I guess they're kind of our thing."

**Author's Note:**

> I told Brit about this prompt and she said it had to end with a version of our engagement story. I could not argue with that!


End file.
